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HIBERNAUT "Obsidian Eye"
HIBERNAUT "Obsidian Eye"
By Dr. Abner Mality
If you can't get enough HIGH ON FIRE in your life, HIBERNAUT may help you avoid withdrawal symptoms. I don't think they would disagree too strongly with the resemblance, which is obvious about five seconds into "Engorge Behemoth". I'm a sucker for that barbaric style of sludgy doom metal myself and since HIGH ON FIRE is erratic in releasing new material, HIBERNAUT is just what the Doom Doctor ordered.
That thick and grumbling guitar tone is here in spades and it's put in service of some war-like mid-paced doom that reeks of hooded monks and ironclad berserkers. The drums also have that tribal battering ram feel; the vocals are shouted roars. One difference that HIBERNAUT has is that they use a ton of wailing acid guitar soloing that's more reminiscent of MONSTER MAGNET and the desert rock bands. There's so much wah-wah on "Obsidian Eye", it will make your eyes roll.
The aforementioned "Engorge Behemoth" and "Venatic Rite" get things off to a crushing start, originality be damned. This is as good as HIGH ON FIRE itself. "Pestiferous" is a different story...I just didn't care for this one. Not as focused, the main riff is blah and the wah-wah is tiring. The title track gets things back on track with a killer song that had my head nodding all the way. "Revenants" is of similar effect, but album closer "Beset" has a grooving BLACK SABBATH riff that gives it a different feel than the other songs. ELECTRIC WIZARD fans will dig it as well.
Definitely recommended to fans of the above referenced bands!
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